Blown insulation is commonly used in the construction industry for insulating dwelling walls, floors, and attics. Insulation fibers such as fiberglass, rock wool, and cellulose are blown into cavities or compartments in building structures (both commercial and residential) to provide thermal and/or acoustic insulation.
Systems and methods for blowing/spraying insulation are old and well-known throughout the art. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,590,984; 5,403,128; 5,389,167; 4,773,960; 5,421,922; 5,393,794; 4,673,594; 4,712,347; 4,411,390; 3,995,775; and 3,861,599. Certain prior art systems blow insulation into closed cavities (e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,347) or attics while others spray or blow the loose-fill insulation together with adhesive into vertically extending open wall cavities so that a substantial amount of the insulation is retained therein.
However, a problem that exists in systems that spray/blow insulation into vertically extending open wall cavities is that a certain amount of the sprayed insulation (e.g. oversprayed portions that are shaved off, or portions that are simply not retained in the open cavities between respective wall studs) falls to the floor in front of or proximate the cavity(ies) being insulated. This excess insulation that falls to the floor may represent from about 10-30% of the insulation sprayed in certain instances. Typically, the insulation that falls to the floor in residential environments is gathered up by shovel and reintroduced into the spraying process at the hopper. This method of recycling waste or overspray fiber is burdensome, time consuming, and labor intensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,128 discloses an insulation recovery system including a vacuum and corresponding return hose for vacuuming up overspray insulation from the floor and conveying same to a vehicle-mounted cyclone separator. The cyclone separator separates much of the recovered insulation from the recovery airstream and forwards it to a standby chamber, from which an auxiliary airlock meters the recycled fibers back into the main airstream where the recycled fibers intermix with virgin fibers being forwarded from the main hopper.
Unfortunately, the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,128 has a number of drawbacks which generally result from the system having been overengineered and having probably been designed mainly for cellulose spraying, although fiberglass and rock wool are mentioned. For example, the system of the '128 patent includes: (i) two separate chambers/hoppers, one for virgin fibers and one standby for recycled fibers; (ii) two separate airlocks, one for virgin fibers and one associated with a standby chamber for recycled fibers, (iii) a cyclone separator, (iv) multiple rooms or compartments, and (v) the space and power needed for same. This system is overly complicated and would be very expensive for typical residential use. Furthermore, while the system of the '128 patent may be excellent for spraying wet, highly saturated, cellulose insulation, many of the system's components that are advantageous, or even believed to be needed, for wet spray cellulose applications, may be burdensome for wet spray fiberglass applications. Cellulose and fiberglass are different animals with different characteristics.
Another commercially available prior art system designed especially for spraying wet cellulose insulation into wall cavities is the Unisul Multi-Matic System. The Multi-Matic includes a vacuum system that recovers excess insulation and returns it to an auxiliary holding hopper, from which it is metered into new virgin fiber forwarded from the main hopper. Again, it has been found that the Multi-Matic, which is excellent for use in cellulose applications where the recovered fibers are highly saturated, is overengineered, and not nearly as efficient when it comes to spraying fiberglass where there is less saturation of the fibers and sometimes a lesser amount of liquid spray utilized. It has been found that the two hoppers and complex metering system of the Multi-Matic are burdensome and overly expensive.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need in the art for an insulation recycling spraying system, and corresponding method, that is less complex, more easily and cheaply made and/or performed, and especially adaptable to wet spray fiberglass techniques.
It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill the above-described needs in the art, as well as other needs which will become apparent to the skilled artisan from the following detailed description of certain embodiments of this invention.